Land of the Morning Turtle

I think I'm getting old...

2011-06-28T02:22:00.003-04:00

I'm truly ambivalent about going to this Boryeong Mud Festival. I got the invite from some other teachers here, and in the past I would've jumped at the chance -- a couple of days of muddy drunken fun? Festival atmosphere, maybe something akin to a huge Phish festival, only no live music and more mud? It still sounds a bit appealing, but I think that's just my reaction to the alternative -- that I'm a bit of a stick in the mud now, and can't be bothered to subject myself to the lively 20-somethings that live for the party, and are still reveling in the fact that yes, they can buy alcohol legally and drink it excessively. I don't know. The people I'd be going with are pretty sedate (at least the two I sort-of know) and I'm sure I'll lighten up after swilling several severals of shitty Korean beer. Like I said, I'm truly ambivalent. Maybe I'll go with: I guess I'll go unless I can think of something better to do. Hmmmm... time to start looking... I guess it looks fun (for a 10 years younger version of me) I don't know. I think I'm getting old.

some poetry

2011-06-10T21:15:00.002-04:00

10/2008

At times, the merest
of glimpses into the infinite
is just enough

The cold breath of night;
peering up at the Vast Black,
pinprick'd and unknown

4/2007
drawing parallels
tarsals tucked in surging froth
watching sandpipers

4/2007
let us not idly
sit on the shore, in the rushes
as worlds collide

Bucheon Bus Trip (stream of consciousness)

2011-06-04T20:27:00.006-04:00

EMart again this time by bus
Bucheon beauty so close so far
Coffee pot buy aborted
Hard sellers in any hemisphere
Winestain lip phenotypical
epicanthically folded
Heavy lids swaying and ducking the handles

Saw a woman smoking today
A first in four weeks
She saw me see her, seemed
defiant
But I was merely surprised, not
judgemental
As fingers pulse across this
touchscreen now
I fit in, head nodded towards the
LCD, firmly out of
the moment -- the death of right effort

A hopeful glance from the only other
heavyweight here
I know sister, it's rough but the
donuts taste so damn good

How to read the girl's shirt behind
me, something like 1 2 so fuck you

I wonder if people realize what
their shit says...

Drunk and passed out on EMart's
lawn yet again
Swastikasa taking on new(old)
meaning here
Lotus blossoms not storm troopers

3 things Go Fuck Yourself?
More reason than this to stare at
her shirt
But damn she's a brick house -- god
bless mini skirts

20.1%

2011-05-28T09:19:00.001-04:00

참이슬

참 : truth or verity

이슬 : dew, dewdrop; tear, teardop
: (more alarmingly) vaginal discharge?

hmmm, so I'm going to take the meaning as "Dewdrop of Truth". Not bad I guess. Along the lines of "In vino veritas" but fresher? Leaving an oh so clean feeling?

Liking the frog logo.

This stuff is not so bad, I just poured myself a Han-screwdriver, replete with Jeju Island mandarin juice -- tasty!

First impressions...

2011-05-07T22:33:00.003-04:00

Neon piedmont mist shrouded cityscape
Mudflat fish culture amidst metropolitan bridges
Highways, the same everywhere though.

Off to find the electric converters needed to fuel my geek fix...

Hope I make it back...

"Set loose upon the world" or "Homeless...for now"

2011-05-06T03:36:00.003-04:00

Here I am, shoulders aching from stuffed-too-full bags, waiting in eager anticipation for the adventures to follow. Too many song titles have preceded this moment for me to avoid the crashing feelings of unoriginality--into the great wide open, stepping into the void, on the road again, these boots are made for walking, learning to fly. All I know is that it feels great; who knew that uncertainty could feel so damn sweet?

It's 3:42 AM, FLL, and I beat the staff here. Time to check some bags and plop this hirsute posterior down into a Korea-bound Economy seat...

I can't imagine not using this...

2010-12-29T07:18:00.000-05:00

I've been using AdBlock on any browser I use for a while now. I take if for granted now that my web surfing will be relatively free of banner ads, flashing crap and noisy distractions. It's great. What really surprises me is that so many people seem to *not* use any kind of adblocking stuff. When I ask them about it, a lot of time the reply, 'Oh, I don't mind the ads, I just ignore them." or "The popup ads on youtube don't bother me, I just click them away" !!! Wow. That is craziness to me. Not only are they ugly and distracting, they slow down your browsing, and add time to the loadup of web pages. I don't know. I guess the ad-watchers can be lauded for wanting to give their favorite websites the ability to make a little revenue, but it's not for me.

Here's some links, in case you have a white belt in Google-fu:

Google Chrome

Safari

Firefox

Shit's about to get real...

2010-12-19T09:12:00.004-05:00

I'll be honest--I was starting to give up hope, I resigned myself to resuming the job search here in this reclaimed swamp of a state, Florida. I was starting to think, hmmm maybe I should enroll in a TESOL class, I'll be able to finish it before I get my damned background check back from the Feds. But then, after a frigid day in the field (62 degree (F) water is chilly even to my northern ass), there it is, you beautiful plain brown envelope containing a single sheet of paper, verifying my lack of criminal record! CHYEAH. Shit's about to get real.

Land of the Morning Calm? Prepare your damn self -- the Morning Turtle approaches!

순두부 & oatmeal

2010-11-16T09:56:00.003-05:00

Sound nasty? Well, don't knock it, it was a pretty good combo. (low calorie as well) The 순두부 지게 (sundubu jigae) was made with 촌각된장 (chon gak doen jang) so was very potent (haha oh yeah) and also had the requisite 호박 (zucchini squash) & pork & onions & 순두부. See, the problem is, oatmeal is bland, and the "normal" things to eat it with tend towards the sweet and fruity, while I prefer savory elements - they just help me feel fuller. I dunno. I've read that people mix in a tbsp. of natural peanut butter, but again, I classify PB as more sweet than savory. My father treats oatmeal and cream of wheat as 축 (gruel) (which it *is* I suppose) and happily eats it plain with dabs of 간장 (soy sauce) but that feels weird to me.

I could've made an egg white omelette, but I feel wasteful ditching all those yolks - maybe I can save them and incorporate them into a bait ball or chum ball... hmmm, interesting possibility, using egg yolk as a binder to the random oatmeal and fish parts that I would create chum ball out of... that could work.

Well, anyway, according to my handy dandy MyFitnessPal iPod app (blech, sorry to use such a buzzy phrase), my brekkie only amounted to 421 calories. Shazaam!

Let's try this again....

2010-10-27T15:11:00.003-04:00

Are the new viewers gone yet?

Ah, ZeFrank, you sure knew how to maintain a blog and garner interest (and memes) in your reader/viewership!

I, on the other hand, am shit at blogging, apparently -- but here's to new efforts! To the 2 followers of this blog - Hey! Betcha didn't expect a post from me today!

Yeah, so I have some new credentials, I got fingerprinted yesterday & sent them to the Feds this morning. Now I gotta polish up the ol' resume, get some small photos taken & make a video about meself. Along the way, saving a bit of cash would be good too. Gotta decide where I'm aiming at (thinking Incheon/Bucheon/Suwon area) and then find a job! So yeah! Finally, (well maybe in a couple months) R.O.K. here I come!

Should be a hoot...

2010-10-27T15:11:00.000-04:00

We real cool. We

Left school. We

Lurk late. We

Strike straight. We

Sing sin. We

Thin gin. We

Jazz June. We

Die soon.

Gwendolyn Brooks

big egg

2009-09-11T12:20:00.001-04:00

This speaks for itself...

the Auto-Tune bandwagon

2009-05-20T21:37:00.003-04:00

I admit it, the Geek in Korea already blogged about these guys, which is how I got turned onto them, but their vids are just too cool, so dammit, I'm posting them in here as well...

and also the followup to this:

oh yeah and here's the Geek in Korea's blog : http://blog.torgodevil.com/

yeah

fish list

2009-05-08T08:37:00.002-04:00

I caught my first bluefish yesterday! In retrospect, I should've kept it, but I really didn't feel like cleaning it, and the guy fishing next to me was eager to take it home, so I gave it to him. I had questioned whether it was of legal size, thinking the limit was 16" (my fish was 16.75"), but I just checked the regs, and I was way legal (size limit is 12") oh well. Anyway, I figured it's a good time to make a knock list of the fish I've caught thus far...

Bluefish (16.75")

Snook (26")

Black tip Shark (4')

Bonnethead Shark (4.5')

Snapper

Mangrove

Lane

Mutton

Longnose Gar (25")

Spotted Seatrout (27")

Black Drum (21")

Croaker (20")

Whiting (16")

Sheepshead (19")

Pompano (12")

Spanish Mackerel (16")

Pike (25")

Grouper

Goliath (15 lbs)

Gag (23")

Trash fish:

Sailtop Catfish (9 lbs)

Ladyfish

Pufferfish

Toadfish

stingrays

Baitfish:

Mullet

Threadfin herring

Pilchards

Pass crabs

Blue crabs

Sand fleas

Fish I'd like to catch

Red fish (Red drum)

Slot Snook (28"-32")

Tripletail

Spadefish

Tarpon

Cobia

Bonefish

Wahoo

Snakehead

Mayan Cichlid

Maybe I'll upload pictures later, don't feel like it at the mo'

know your limits

2009-04-23T12:26:00.004-04:00

So I caught my first pompano today while surf fishing, but because I didn't know the size limits, I threw it back, not wanting to take an undersized fish (and risk getting fined by the local Wildlife Commision). Now that I check the regulations, I realize that my fish was indeed of legal size, and could have graced my dinner plate tonight. Dammit. As mentioned, it was my first pompano, so it would have been nice to eat it. They're supposed to be good eating too, so that kinda sucks. Here's what they look like...

Just goes to show, you should know your limits..

Korean movies

2009-04-20T18:08:00.003-04:00

So I just saw Chingoo, (which actually came out years ago, but whatever) it was really good. I haven't updated in a while, but since I have many school assignments due and tests to study for, this seemed like a perfect way to procrastinate even further. Other popular ways (for me) to procrastinate: watch some Korean tv shows, like Family Outing

or 1N2D

or read other people's blogs: Seoul Patch, Amanda Takes Off, Geek in Korea, FoodWishes

or otherwise think of ways to geek out and become even more antisocial

check please

2009-02-10T12:33:00.004-05:00

critical assignments, classroom observation, excel spreadsheets, planning to drink this thursday, fishing poorly lately, not catching much, not going out, threw a par +6 on a 9 hole disc golf course yesterday, 4' black snake scared the shit out of me on an awry throw on the 7th hole, that was exciting, journal article reviews, skyping with friends, information security, check this shit out

speaking of that, Slumdog Millionaire was a really good movie, as was Taken and Religulous and Gran Turismo. Good stuff. Enjoyable.

Historicality

2008-11-05T02:51:00.005-05:00

Wow. I fell asleep I must admit, eye-weary from result tracking, switching between browser tabs, comparing coverages. I woke up at 2am and I see that I slept through a historical moment (though I guess one may argue that every moment bears a small history to be made..), and that something that many might have thought impossible has happened. Craziness. I watched his victory speech, he seems a good orator, and I have a feeling that he pronounces the word "nuclear" correctly, so that's good. I dunno. Feels pretty good.

Saw this on ZeFrank's blog earlier today, found it to be the funny...

Skunk'd

2008-10-12T18:54:00.006-04:00

So lately this blog, ostensibly about Korea, is a blog about fishing. Not the case today, well actually it is, that is about fishing, but not catching. (If you fish, you know the old joke I reference there, and also, sorry if you've endured an over-reiteration of said joke). I fished from about 9am to 3pm today with absolutely no success. Makes me tempted to go out again tonight but I've been experiencing strange bouts of vertigo today, two memorable bouts occurring while driving to my fishing spot: not fun! Yeah vertigo is somewhat distressing, as I don't know what's causing it, nor do I have health insurance to find out (gotta love living in a so-called "superpower 1st-world nation" that doesn't have national health care.) I suspect, or rather hope, that my vertigo is along the lines of BPPV (benign paroxysmal positional vertigo) which is a disorder of little calcium stones in one's inner ear shifting about and sending false signals to one's brain, much like the pretty girl in the pub waving and smiling at some douchbag sitting behind you; and that it's *not* oh I dunno, inoperable brain tumors or low-level mercury poisoning (maybe it's a good thing that I didn't catch any fish today...)

Oh, on an aside, according to the handy little hit tracking map thing on the sidebar over there ---------->>>>> I've apparently had traffic from Australia, Columbia, Great Britain, Canada, Korea, and several places in the US! Surprising to me this is, as I don't really know anyone from Columbia or England, not to say I wouldn't want to meet anyone from these places, but you know what I mean. I guess what I mean to say is Welcome! Thanks for visiting, or mayhaps, thanks for accidentally clicking over to my blog... If you return and read this, feel free to comment about how you found my blog, or not, no pressure, but I'm curious is all...

recent activities

2008-09-30T08:20:00.005-04:00

Wow, it's almost October... It's hard to mark the passage of time when the weather here stays consistently hot basically all year. All of this 80-90 degree weather makes me yearn for autumn, chill breezes, blowing leaves and warm apple cider.

Well lately I've been fishing some different spots, and I've had some new experiences with different species....

This isn't a pic of the fish I caught (mine was smaller than this) but I recently caught a longnose gar in brackish water:

and I've also caught my first barracuda:
So that's been good, it's nice to catch anything really, and when it's a new-to-me species, all the better.

I've also been able to repair some older reels that we have lying around, which is very satisfying as it would have cost over $40 to get them fixed or to replace them, and more importantly I have the knowledge now to do it myself, with under $20 invested in replacement parts.

Turtle: Origins

2008-09-18T10:20:00.006-04:00

Okay, why did I get into blogs and blogging? It's kind of a disturbing story actually. When I first started researching teaching abroad, the first blog I came across about this subject matter was the Korea Life Blog by this guy named Shawn. I started reading it, and liked his writing style and food picture-heavy posts, so I went ahead and read his archives spanning back to prior his arrival in Korea. For close to 7 hours I was sitting in front of the comp, reading his blog from inception. As I got closer to current, I saw he was having issues with his girlfriend, and that he eventually left his position in Korea to move to China, where he started the China Life Blog. At this point, a week or so had passed from when I originally found Shawn's blog, and I was reading some comments on the Korea Life Blog, that hinted that Shawn's readers were upset and stating condolences and comments of that nature. I come to find out that a week or so after I had found KLB, and after reading a year's worth of posts, and basically getting to know and like this random english teacher in Korea/China, that Shawn, in a fit of depression, jumped off of his apartment building roof in China and killed himself.

I guess that's definitely kind of disturbing that this sparked my interest in blogs, because at that point, I realized the connection one can make with a generally anonymous and faceless audience, and sought out more blogs to read. Because as unfortunate any death is, a person I've never met before's death on the other side of the planet generally would have little to no effect on me, I mean people are dying every second, and I have no reaction to that knowledge, but through this medium, connections are forged and there is something to that I guess.

Wow, this post is kind of a drag, huh? Let's see.... in honor of Shawn, who was kind to stray cats in korea, is a picture to lighten the mood...

how NOT to cook korean pancakes (pajun)

2008-09-03T19:48:00.002-04:00

Wow, if you've had real pajun prepared by an actual korean person, you'll see why this video made me /facepalm.

No offense to any Britishers out there, but man, that was pretty far out.

fried eggs and mayo

2008-09-02T14:35:00.003-04:00

I see that look of incredulity spanning your visage as you read the title of this post. You have read correctly, however, and if you've yet to try this surprisingly good (and not necessarily good for you) combination, you may not know what you're missing out on. While others have suggestions contrary to this basic pairing (albeit tasty sounding suggestions), as far as ease of preparation and availability of necessary ingredients involved, few recipe choices can hold a cholesterol-infused candle to this tasty list:

Open faced egg and mayo sammy on wheat:
fry a couple eggs, either hard or over easy (dependent on time available for beard cleanup after)
toast, or not, several slices of whole wheat bread
spread some mayo on your bread
serve open faced, salt & pepper to taste

oh, it's good though

the Usual Suspects

2008-08-26T09:39:00.002-04:00

I've been perusing the Korea Blog List some more the last few days... there are some clever folks over there in ROK I must say, hopefully I'll get to meet some of them once I arrive. However, I wonder if I'm fated to have such an analogous experience as what's represented in their writings: norae-bangs, late night soju-binges, partying in Itaewon... Not to knock those experiences, they sound like they can be a blast, at least on occasion, but as a routine, I don't know if I can take that. Then again, I know that any experience is what one makes of it, so if I try hard enough, I can make my stay abroad more varied and less alcohol-infused than many make it sound like it must be (? I don't know how well composed that last sentence was, but, whatever). hmmmmm.

Things I look forward to in Korea:
triangular kimbab
language immersion

Things I know will really bug me in Korea:
brand importance/vanity/materialism
xenophobism (?)
racism in kids (actually that bothers me no matter where I am)

refocus

2008-07-24T09:09:00.004-04:00

Wow, I want and need to stay on top of this blogging thing. I read several other blogs, pretty much everyday, and I know how I anticipate new stuff to read, so when I don't post new entries for 20 days, I realize how a potential regular reader (of which I doubt I have any at this point) might be put off or also be made to anticipate or grow impatient with me. If you do check my blog, sorry it's been awhile. I'd like to report that my life is terribly interesting, and I haven't had a spare moment to compose a post about my activities, but truly, my life is kinda dull at the mo, and though I've had spare time aplenty, what is lacking is subject matter.

As an exercise in focusing myself and my intentions for this blog, let me queue up some topics that I'd like to expand upon:
fresh and saltwater fish species of Korea,
ssirreum (shillim) aka traditional korean wrestling,
the intricacies of the F4 (korean heritage) visa,
perspective of a foreign-raised korean (gyopo) teaching in korea,
perspective of a hairy foreign-raised korean teaching in korea,
seriously, I'm pretty hairy and I wonder how people will react to that,
acquisition and learning how to play a haegum (traditional korean violin, similar to the chinese erhu),
calligraphy painting,
Infinity of Sound aka Infinite of Sound aka I.S. who play this:

well hopefully that embedded video works...

There's more I guess that I want to talk about, but I should get some school and IG (income generating) work done, so that's all for now....

2 lbs of lead and a 2nd degree burn later....

2008-07-06T12:26:00.008-04:00

So I spent the last 2 hours casting 1 ounce egg sinkers out of lead that I reclaimed from the lead line of an old cast net. Even though they sell aluminum die 's that produce nicely rounded, perfect egg sinkers of various weights, the way I look at it, the whole point in casting my own sinkers is to save money, not shell out $40 on a fancy die, so I made a couple out of Fimo modeling clay.

The result is admittedly kinda crude, so instead of this:

I end up with these, which are not pretty, but serve the function of having mass and making my bait sink, admirably well:

If you're thinking about pursuing a similar venture in thriftiness (cheapness? stubbornness?) keep a few things in mind. First, lead is pretty toxic, so good ventilation is a great idea. Also, don't pick your nose, eat, smoke, or suck your thumb while dealing with lead, unless you enjoy trips to hospital or the accompanying possible side effect of crazy psychosis sometimes associated with lead toxicity. Second, molten lead is pretty hot (around 620 deg F hot) so heavy leather gloves and other precautions are probably a good idea as well. Third, mixing hot things with cold things does not turn out well, especially in the case of molten lead and slightly damp Fimo molds, which, in my personal experience, can result in an exciting display of molten lead flying and popping out of the mold, much like water thrown on an grease fire, resulting in this:

For a fairly stupid move on my part, I got out of it with relatively little damage, and now I know to heat my molds first, and make sure they're absolutely dry before pouring lead.

Urgent Turtle

2008-06-27T09:28:00.003-04:00

The causeway was deserted that fateful friday morning, the group of 3 that had been fishing all night couldn't have left at a better time. As the peristaltic pressure built in our hero's gut, and a dank gleam of perspiration glistened on his forehead and neck, his eyes grew frantic, darting to and fro, searching for the location of his impending befoulment.
With a throaty roar of triumph and relief, and the only witness to the horrible spectacle a great blue heron standing ankle deep in the nearby brackish waters, our protagonist mouthed a silent word of thanks and apology to the innocent stand of palm trees and scrub grasses to which he had literally laid waste.

Game Night, impromptu

2008-06-25T08:47:00.004-04:00

Generally, I'm slightly uncomfortable around kids. This can be viewed as a negativism, since my intention is to surround myself with them, and try to coax them to absorb the information that I'm presenting to them. You see, I'm a big guy, and kids just look little and fragile to me. So when my folks invited their pastor over for dinner last night, and then he arrived with two little kids in tow (12 and 10 I think) I felt a mixture of perturbation (is that a word? oh well roll wit it), apprehension and hunger (that last one is probably unrelated to the kids haha).
Here's a precis of the night to follow:
dinner
chinese checkers against a 10 year old girl ( I won )
taught girl how to play chess (lost queen early due to distraction by 12 year old boy, came back to win it though)
gave tips on putting to the boy
about 10 games straight of mancala versus both kids
watched my pops and the pastor play Go
got challenged and subsequently schooled at Go by the boy, who cackled at my ineptitude the whole duration of the game

and that ate up 4 hours last night. Moral of the story? Kids like games? (duh) umm Sitting cross-legged for 1.5 hours playing mancala makes my ass fall asleep? Go is an interesting and sometimes frustrating game?

Mission Statement

2008-06-23T11:20:00.005-04:00

So what is with this blog? What is my purpose, focus, muse, deal anyway?

I'm a gyopo with the intention of temporary repatriation under the guise and funded by teaching english to them as can pay in Korea. This is a couple years down the line, but, I figure, why not start a narrative now, which maybe will become an information source during the planning stages of this venture.

Topics I'd like to touch upon?
Well, aside from the usual topics of teachers abroad, learning korean language as a gyopo living in Korea, calligraphy painting, shillim, fishing in korea, and hopefully travel.

And also turtles, turtling and turtle heads.

Toilet humor is universal...

2008-06-22T12:35:00.000-04:00

Is it ill-conceived to title a narrative after an act of elimination?

You could call it hubris...

...or urgency. or purgency. or pungency. or poogency. or number2gency.

Maybe you take it easy, bring a periodical.

Maybe you get quantitative, set up a clock, use the bathroom scale (bleh).

Whether you're shamed by your gastrointestinal trumpeting or it invokes hearty belly laughs and cheering, you can't escape

the morning turtle.

And if you could, who'd want to?